


Trusting John

by relissoawesome



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-26
Updated: 2011-09-26
Packaged: 2017-10-24 02:03:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/257659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/relissoawesome/pseuds/relissoawesome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave is not very good at being honest with himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trusting John

To Dave, flying is the strangest sensation in the world, and if he were honest with himself, he kind of hates it.

His reason for not being honest – and also his reason for currently being midair – flashes a bucktoothed grin at him and takes them even higher.

“You’re going to love the view, okay? Trust me, it’s worth it,” says John.

Dave says nothing and wraps his arms around John a little tighter.

It’s not that he has a problem with heights – why should he have a problem with heights? He’s spent half his damn life jumping around on rooftops – what he really has a problem with, actually, is John. Or maybe not John himself, really, so much as the fact that when they’re up in the air, John flying the two of them around like some sort of blue-hooded air taxi, Dave has no choice but to hold on to John and trust him not to let them fall.

As it so happens, trusting John is something that Dave’s gotten particularly good at lately; he trusts John not to drop him and send him to a bloody death on Skaia’s checkered floor, another knight downed in a game which is not quite chess; he trusts John to take them where they need to go and to not pull any pranks midair; he trusts John when John says that the view is worth it. He also trusts John to laugh off any confessions of love or otherwise that Dave may proffer, chalking it up to their eternal game of gay cluckbeast.

Dave readjusts his grip on John and digs his face into John’s chest a little bit.

“I trust you,” says Dave, except it comes out muffled so that maybe it sounds like “I trust you” and maybe it sounds like “I love you” and maybe it sounds like “a box too.”

“What?” says John.

“I said, ‘Are we there yet?’ If I have to keep hanging on any longer my arms are going to fall off and then it’ll just be one goddamn reference to retrieving arms after another.”

John snorts at this, and Dave really isn’t sure exactly what John found so funny about his comment but he’s glad he was able to get a rise out of John anyway, and Dave’s starting to wonder what exactly it is about John’s snort at his joke that makes Dave feel like he’s told the greatest joke in paradox space when John says,

“We’re there yet!”

Dave raises an eyebrow at John’s wording, realizing that it’s John’s stupid way of referencing Dave’s earlier question, and considers telling John in as many metaphors as he possibly can why John’s non-joke is lame, but he doesn’t because suddenly they’re landing on the top of what is apparently a lookout tower, smack dab in the middle of nowhere on the Skaian plain.

If Dave were being honest with himself, he would admit that the view is actually fantastic.

But Dave’s not being honest with anyone, especially not himself, and so he thrusts that thought aside and says,  
“So what did you bring me up here for anyway? I know that this must be the most romantic spot in all of Skaia, but I really thought that if you were going to propose to me it would be something more along the lines of ‘Hey Dave, let’s watch Armageddon for the six trillionth time’, but then when I pop the DVD in it’s some home movie of you waxing on about our first pesterlogs and when I look down in the DVD case I am completely surprised that I never noticed the ring in there considering it has a rock on it the size of my fist.”

“Dave! I would never propose to you like that!” says John, sitting down on the edge of the tower’s roof.

“No, I guess not,” says Dave.

“Armageddon is not nearly romantic enough of a movie to use as a proposal ruse. I would definitely suggest we watch Leap Year.”

The corner of Dave’s mouth twitches and threatens to shatter his pokerface. He takes a seat next to John.

“I’ll try not to forget that time you suggest we watch Leap Year.”

They gaze out over the Skaian plain, this area as of yet untouched by the battle, and John gives Dave a sidelong glance, trying to read Dave’s face under his sunglasses.

“Actually,” says John, “I did bring you here to confess something.”

Dave says nothing, and for all the world seems to have not heard John, but John’s gotten to know Dave’s body language well enough by now to know that Dave is listening to him intently.

“I don’t know if any of us are actually going to survive this game,” says John abruptly. He pauses for a moment, and then pushes on, “I mean, I’ve died and come back a couple times already, but that doesn’t mean the next time it won’t stick. And you and Rose- and Jade’s dreamself- anyway, I don’t think the point of Sburb is for any of its players to actually make it out of the game alive.”

John is pointedly looking straight ahead and not at Dave. What John doesn’t mention are those who have died and stayed dead; his father and Dave’s brother, and Rose’s mom- dwelling on it won’t help, and it’s not as though Dave will ever actually confess to being upset about Bro’s death. John doesn’t actually need to say anything, as it turns out; Dave’s gotten more tense in the minutest way possible, but to anyone who knows Dave well enough he might as well be sobbing.

“Anyway,” says John, “I just wanted to take a moment away from everything, and tell you that- well, I guess I just wanted to make sure you know that you’re my best friend in the whole world. Or what’s left of it. And I’m glad that I met you.”

Dave doesn’t say anything for a moment, and then he reaches up and slowly, carefully, takes off his sunglasses. If Dave were being honest with himself, he would admit that it’s taking everything in him to keep his hand from shaking. He turns to look at John, really look at him, because it’s time to lay everything on the table, now or never, speak now or forever hold your feelings bottled up inside you.

“I love you,” says Dave.

“I know,” says John.

**Author's Note:**

> So I've never actually written fanfiction before, but it looked like fun and I wanted to try it, so I did. That's all there really is to say on the matter.


End file.
